IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v34y2020i1p91-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Building Labour Internationalism ‘from Below’: Lessons from the International Dockworkers Council’s European Working Group

Author

Listed:
  • Katy Fox-Hodess

Abstract

This article considers whether the efficacy of transnational unionism, a strategy for trade union movement revitalisation, might be increased by a second revitalisation strategy: rank-and-file trade union democracy. This question is examined through a study of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), an exceptional case of institutionalised rank-and-file union democracy at the transnational level. A shadow comparison examines the work of the International Transport Workers Federation, a bureaucratic trade union organisation active in the same sector. The IDC’s structure is found to increase the efficacy of transnational unionism by removing layers of bureaucratic mediation that slow down action, fostering a culture of militant solidarity among participants. Nevertheless, participants noted the heavy personal burdens placed on activists under this model and some difficulties of operating without the assistance of paid professionals. Additionally, differing national legal and political contexts for unionism remain significant barriers to effective internationalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Katy Fox-Hodess, 2020. "Building Labour Internationalism ‘from Below’: Lessons from the International Dockworkers Council’s European Working Group," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(1), pages 91-108, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:1:p:91-108
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017019862969
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017019862969
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017019862969?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michels, Robert, 1915. "Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number michels1915.
    2. Jane Wills, 1998. "Taking on the CosmoCorps? Experiments in Transnational Labor Organization," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(2), pages 111-130, April.
    3. Margaret Levi & David Olson & Jon Agnone & Devin Kelly, 2009. "Union Democracy Reexamined," Politics & Society, , vol. 37(2), pages 203-228, June.
    4. Katy Fox-Hodess, 2017. "(Re-)Locating the Local and National in the Global: Multi-Scalar Political Alignment in Transnational European Dockworker Union Campaigns," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 626-647, September.
    5. Peter Turnbull, 2006. "The War on Europe’s Waterfront — Repertoires of Power in the Port Transport Industry," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 44(2), pages 305-326, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ruth Reaney & Niall Cullinane, 2024. "Inter-Union Solidarity and Strategic Group Identity: Insights from Works Councils in the French Car Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(2), pages 377-398, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katy Fox-Hodess, 2017. "(Re-)Locating the Local and National in the Global: Multi-Scalar Political Alignment in Transnational European Dockworker Union Campaigns," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 626-647, September.
    2. Evans, Peter, 2010. "Is it Labor’s Turn to Globalize? Twenty-first Century Opportunities and Strategic Responses," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt10j002st, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    3. Alvarez, Jose L. & Maza, Carmelo, 2000. "Consumption of management publications, The," IESE Research Papers D/420, IESE Business School.
    4. David Goss & Janet Druker & Tim Strangleman & Kevin Ward & Helen Russell & Mark Erickson, 2002. "Book Reviews," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(4), pages 761-773, December.
    5. Drew L. Harris & Teresa M. Twomey, 2019. "Economic Democracy: The Role of Privilege in Advancing Civilization," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(5), pages 1229-1249, November.
    6. Korkmaz, Emre Eren, 2013. "Globalisation, the global labour movement and transnational solidarity campaigns: three case studies from Turkey," SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 16(1), pages 97-112.
    7. Helios Herrera & César Martinelli, 2013. "Oligarchy, democracy, and state capacity," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 52(1), pages 165-186, January.
    8. Hart E. Posen & Dirk Martignoni & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2013. "E Pluribus Unum: Organizational Size and the Efficacy of Learning," DRUID Working Papers 13-09, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    9. Gavin Capps, 2015. "Labour in the time of platinum," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(146), pages 497-507, October.
    10. Ernesto Noronha & Premilla D’Cruz & Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday, 2020. "Navigating Embeddedness: Experiences of Indian IT Suppliers and Employees in the Netherlands," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 95-113, June.
    11. Riccardo Pelizzo, 2018. "Democracy and Governance," Research Africa Network Working Papers 18/004, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    12. Pedro Cisneros-Velarde & Francesco Bullo, 2021. "A network formation game for the emergence of hierarchies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(8), pages 1-26, August.
    13. Kartik Misra, 2019. "Accumulation by Dispossession and Electoral Democracies : An Analysis of Land Acquisition for Special Economic Zones in India," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-16, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    14. John Godard, 2009. "The Exceptional Decline of the American Labor Movement," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 63(1), pages 82-108, October.
    15. Stéphane Jaumier, 2016. "Preventing chiefs from being chiefs: An ethnography of a co-operative sheet-metal factory," Post-Print hal-01366601, HAL.
    16. Emilie Bourlier-Bargues & Jean-Pascal Gond & Bertrand Valiorgue, 2022. "Fast and spurious: How executives capture governance structures to prevent cooperativization," Post-Print hal-03828145, HAL.
    17. Katarzyna Jezierska, 2020. "Three Types of Denial: Think Tanks as a Reluctant Civil Society Elite," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 152-161.
    18. Büthe, Tim & Morgan, Stephen, 2015. "Antitrust Enforcement and Foreign Competition: Special Interest Theory Reconsidered," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205607, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Zudenkova, Galina, 2012. "A rationale for intra-party democracy," MPRA Paper 39091, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Teodora DOBRE, 2015. "Mass-Mediated Ukrainian Conflict," Europolity – Continuity and Change in European Governance - New Series, Department of International Relations and European Integration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:1:p:91-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.